Hi. My name is Burt Stanton and I am a 4th year Chinese medicine student. We have a problem in class which we have to sort out but we can not find an answer in the literature. As a matter of fact none of our teachers really gave a satisfactory answer... ;-(( We know that Yang corresponds with male energy and it relates to the right side of the body while Yin is femake and relates to the left side, at least most of the literature claims so.. How is it then that our teacher says that Yang problems exhibit on the left side of the body and Yin problems on the right? Or, is it not so? Thanks for your illumination on this topic, regards, Burt.

Hello Burt. This is indeed a very interesting and appropriate question. It is also a question that has raised plenty of debate throughout the ages in China itself. It is true that most of the Ch. med. texts claim that Yin Qi resides on the left side and Yang on the Rt. side. Yet, some have claimed exactly the opposite. Nevertheless, the main stream of Ch. med. thought accepts that Yin belongs to the left and Yang to the right - speaking of polarity ! You can find this concept for instance in the famous and ancient Kidney Yang tonifying herbal prescription: You Gui Wan - Restore the Right Kidney Pill. Now, assuming that Yang Qi does attract to the right side, it is not surprising that excessive, hot or Yang problems appear mostly on the left side... Under the same logic, it is not surprising that Yin-nature disorders tend to appear on the right side of the body. If you remember, Yang problems tend to weaken the Yin and v.v. Thus, if Yin is deficient, Yang disorders will increase in the evening (a Yin time), and if Yang is deficient, Yin disorders will rise in the early morning (a Yang time) - a morning diarrhea, for instance, phlegm-asthma etc. Medical experience does show that Yang Qi disharmonies exhibit themselves mostly on the left side of the body and v.v. with Yin. This is so as a rule, but it is not uncommon to find also the opposite happening in the clinic. As you know, the interaction of Yin and Yang in the body is very complex and involves many diversities and changes. Sometimes one organ is excessive Yang in action and in the same time a parallel organ is very Yin... Thus, a major disorder maybe primarily of another organ than you have in mind and the problem will exhibit on the other side of the body that you might expect it... Hope this clarifies your question.

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